partly over concerns about his family’s finances, has been named deputy general counsel for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency said tonight. Kwon, 47, a first assistant state attorney general, will replace his old boss, former New Jersey Attorney General Paula Dow, who had been hired as deputy general counsel after her own nomination to the state Superior Court was held up by Democratic lawmakers in Trenton. Dow stepped down from the $215,000 Port Authority post last month after the state Senate approved her appointment as a judge in Burlington County. "Phil Kwon will begin working at the Port Authority as the deputy general counsel this Monday," Hunter Pendarvis, a Port Authority spokesman, said tonight without elaborating. Pendarvis would not discuss Kwon’s salary. In January, Gov. Chris Christie nominated Kwon as an associate justice but the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected the nomination two months later. The rejection dealt Christie one of the most stinging defeats of his tenure. Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor, called the hiring "a great move by the Port Authority." "Phil Kwon is a top-notch attorney and prosecutor with a stellar record of accomplishment at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office," Drewniak said. "He is a smart, focused, inquisitive individual — just what the Port Authority needs as it continues reforms instituted by Governor Christie and Governor Cuomo." Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo share control of the bi-state agency. Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), who chairs the Transportation, Public Works and Independent Authorities Committee as well as the state Democratic Party, said Kwon’s hiring was clearly directed by Christie as a consolation for Kwon’s failure to win confirmation to the state’s highest court.

Wisniewski said the hiring was all the more troubling after Dow had been hired for the very same job. "I thought that was in the Port Authority charter that they would accept rejected judicial nominees," Wisniewski said sarcastically. "For an administration that insists on transparency and making appointments based on qualifications, it seems that the pattern has been established here that the Port Authority is a place where you put your nominees when they don’t succeed elsewhere." Christie nominated Kwon and Mayor Bruce Harris of Chatham Borough to the seven-member court in January. The Judiciary Committee, which is controlled by the Democrats, rejected Kwon in March because of questions about his family’s business and his years as a Republican before registering as an independent last spring. In May, the committee turned away Harris, also a Republican, citing his lack of courtroom experience. Wisniewski said Kwon’s hiring at the Port Authority raises the same concerns senators had about the banking habits of his mother, who agreed to pay $160,000 in federal taxes to settle a legal action that involved her liquor store in New York state. Authorities had alleged that from April 2010 to February 2011, more than $2 million in cash from the business was broken down into 222 deposits of slightly less than $10,000 each to avoid scrutiny by the Internal Revenue Service, an illegal practice known as "structuring." No criminal charges were filed, the business never admitted any liability, and Philip Kwon was not named in the case. Kwon told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing that he had not been aware of his mother’s behavior, though they lived together during that time in a $2.3 million home in Closter purchased in 2010. Had he been confirmed to the Supreme Court, Kwon would have been the state’s first Asian-American justice.